During the period of "turmoil" 1917-1920. there was widespread terror in society. The violent destruction of each other by compatriots is a national tragedy in which each side was convinced that it was fighting for a just cause. In February 1917, various political forces in Russia united and swept away the tsarist autocracy with relative ease. But further fate They saw the country differently. The majority of political parties believed that the main thing had been done - the autocracy had fallen, and a period of comprehension, analysis and choice of the future path of Russia's development had begun. The most radical forces, and primarily the Bolsheviks, based on the attitudes of V.I. Lenin on the continuity of the revolution and its development from bourgeois-democratic to socialist, led to a further struggle for political power. Revolutionary radicalism and revolutionary impatience of the popular masses, on the one hand, social egoism, and the inability to make concessions and reforms of the propertied sections of society and parties, on the other, made the struggle fierce and inhumane.
The overthrown forces, as well as yesterday's allies of the Bolsheviks, united and opposed Soviet power. At the same time, in the outbreak of a large-scale internecine war, the radically irreconcilable Bolsheviks also showed great tenacity. Distrust, hostility, and bitterness prevailed over the desire to meet each other halfway and seek compromises.
The civil war develops according to its own laws. October raised the question not only of the redistribution of power or property, but of the very physical existence of entire sections of society. Civil peace could not be achieved then. Four years later, as a result of losses at the fronts, terror, famine and disease, the country was missing more than 13 million people.
By showing terror from the positions of the Reds and the Whites, we will move away from the truth and create a one-sided idea of this phenomenon. First of all, the relevant question is who and when started the terror. It is well known that the October coup was carried out virtually bloodlessly, and until the summer of 1918 there was virtually no terror as a political phenomenon on the part of the Soviet government. Moreover, in the article “How the bourgeoisie uses renegades” V.I. Lenin, criticizing K. Kautsky’s book “Terrorism and Communism,” explains his views on the problems of terror in general and revolutionary violence in particular. Responding to the accusation that the Bolsheviks used to be opponents of the death penalty, but now use mass executions, V.I. Lenin wrote: “Firstly, it is an outright lie that the Bolsheviks were opponents of the death penalty before the revolution... Not a single revolutionary government can do without the death penalty, and that the whole question is only against which class is the weapon of the death penalty directed by this government " V.I. Lenin, as a theorist and politician, unequivocally advocated the possibility of the peaceful development of the revolution, noted that in the ideal of Marxists there is no place for violence against people, that the working class would, of course, prefer to peacefully take power into their own hands. Who then and when started the terror?
It is impossible to answer this question unequivocally today. Historians of the Civil War and contemporaries of these events name different dates and blame both sides for the “first shot” initiative. Let us name the main points of view on this problem.
First. The very fact of the Bolsheviks seizing power by force on October 24-25, 1917 was the beginning of the era of terror. This was the first illegal political action, which entailed all the others.
Second. The dispersal of the Constituent Assembly on January 5, 1918 marked the beginning of the outright dictatorship of the Bolshevik Party and the policy of terror directed against their opponents.
Third. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and the debate surrounding its conclusion polarized the political forces of Russia. All subsequent actions of supporters and opponents of the Bolsheviks moved from the area of debate to the area of open struggle against the use of terror.
Fourth. Large-scale terror was unleashed by the Left Social Revolutionaries on July 6, 1918, when armed anti-Bolshevik protests began in Moscow, Yaroslavl and Rybinsk. The purpose of these speeches was “the restoration of authorities and officials, which existed according to the current laws before the October Revolution of 1917, that is, before the seizure of central power by the Council of People's Commissars...”
Fifth. The “Red Terror” was the Bolsheviks’ response to the attempt by counter-revolutionaries on the leaders of the revolution (the murder of M.S. Uritsky, the attempt on V.I. Lenin on August 30, 1918, etc.).
The list of versions, dates and perpetrators of large-scale terror can be continued further. However, this is unlikely to clarify the essence of the problem. Probably, the truth should be sought based on a different formulation of the question - was terror inevitable during the civil war, or was it a response to someone’s rash step or provocation? It is quite obvious that terror is the child of any revolution in any country. Let us remember the Great French Revolution, the history of England, the Netherlands, Germany, etc. It is also significant that the larger and deeper the changes as a result of the revolutions, the wider and bloodier the terror on both sides. The depth of the socio-political and economic transformations that began in October 1917 in Russia is obvious and does not require proof. Consequently, political, state terror was inevitable and natural. In this case, the question of who started it and when recedes into the background, especially since the opposing forces themselves spoke about the presence of terror on both sides as an inevitable cruel reality and necessity. A.I. Denikin in his “Essays on Russian Troubles” admitted that volunteer troops left “dirty dregs in the form of violence, robberies and Jewish pogroms.” As for the enemy (Soviet) warehouses, shops, convoys or property of the Red Army soldiers, they were “dismantled randomly, without a system” (read: robbery). Facts indicate that almost immediately after October 1917, international reaction moved from political, economic, and ideological methods of struggle directly to military ones, i.e. to open terror from outside. Along with the active support of the counter-revolutionary generals, the interventionists themselves launched mass terror, creating the “death camps” of Mudyug and Yokanga.
Similar large-scale acts of terror were characteristic of both the Kolchakites and the Czechoslovakians. In November 1919, the White Czechs wrote in their memorandum: “Under the protection of Czechoslovak bayonets, local Russian military bodies (meaning Kolchak’s) allow themselves actions that would horrify the entire civilized world. The burning of villages, the beating of peaceful Russian citizens..., the execution without trial of representatives of democracy on simple suspicion of political unreliability are common occurrences.” In the fire of the fratricidal war, many familiar concepts disappeared and became alien: instead of mercy and compassion - mutual brutality, instead of a calm flow of life - a state of chaos and fear.
The Bolsheviks, having come to power, proclaimed a radical restructuring of Russian society. Idealistic ideas about the peaceful modernization of Russia did not collapse immediately. The first steps of the new government were completely democratic: abolition of the death penalty, amnesty, taking their word of honor from political opponents about further non-participation in the fight against Soviet power, etc.
With the narrowing of the social base of the Bolsheviks, the emergence of numerous anti-Bolshevik centers of struggle, the economic crisis and mass discontent of the internal (Kombeda, food surplus) and foreign policy(Brest-Litovsk Peace) circumstances pushed the Bolsheviks to saving terror as a tool for protecting power.
The Red Terror was aimed at eradicating entire social groups of landowners, capitalists, officials, priests, kulaks and political opponents - Cadets, Mensheviks, Socialist Revolutionaries - who were preventing what the Communists called socialism. By artificially deepening the split within society, the communists acted on the principle of “divide and conquer!” The peasants found themselves divided into kulaks, middle peasants, and poor peasants. The workers were divided into hereditary, class-conscious, mercenaries of the bourgeoisie. The main difference between the kulaks and petty-bourgeois workers was their independence, which the Bolsheviks could not allow. All forces and layers of Russian society capable of defending their independence and isolation from the state were systematically destroyed by the communists. Not only civil society institutions were liquidated (independent courts, parliamentarism, independent press, political parties, local government, independent trade unions, peasant cooperatives, etc.), but also everyone who was in one way or another associated with these attributes of civil society. The Bolsheviks were building a new homogeneous society of the masses in which they could carry out their policies without hindrance.
Large-scale red terror at the state level was openly proclaimed by the Soviet government and its punitive agencies after the Left Socialist Revolutionary rebellion in July 1918 and the assassination attempt on the Bolshevik leaders - M.S. Uritsky, V. Volodarsky and V.I. himself. Lenin. July 26, 1918 V.I. Lenin wrote to Petrograd G.E. Zinoviev: “Only today we heard in the Central Committee that in St. Petersburg the workers wanted to respond to the murder of Volodarsky with mass terror, and that you ... restrained it. I strongly protest! We are compromising ourselves: even in the resolutions of the Council of Deputies we threaten with mass terror, but when it comes down to it, we slow down the revolutionary initiative of the masses, which is quite correct. This is impossible! Terrorists will consider us wimps. It's arch-war time. We must encourage the energy and mass character of terror against counter-revolutionaries...”
In the appeal of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of August 30, 1918 about the attempt on V.I. Lenin said: “The working class will respond to an assassination attempt directed against its leaders by even greater consolidation of its forces, will respond with merciless mass terror against all enemies of the revolution.” How many opponents of the revolution were there in Russia? Millions! Is this a call for their destruction on the principle of “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”?
Obviously, both sides are guilty of terror, all those who accepted the revolution and those who did not accept it. Society was split, and the leaders of the Whites and Reds longed for victory in the name of “saving Russia.” Both of them saw terror as a cruel necessity, a tool to achieve a goal. Hence the barbaric tyranny of the whites, the mercilessness of the Cheka, lawlessness, and the loss of moral principles and norms.
It should be borne in mind that the civil war changed the very nature of its main participants. The White movement began with the unification of Russian officers against the Bolshevik dictatorship. Although at first voluntary, it set out with a noble goal - to save Russia from the Bolshevik yoke and destruction. However, as the war progressed, the white movement became much more intolerant than at the beginning. Like the Bolsheviks, the Whites labeled any opponent as a “communist” or “commissar,” who were not subject to any laws or rights.
The weakness of the white movement was that it could not become a unifying national strength, and remained practically a movement of officers, devoid of a broad social base. It failed to establish cooperation with the liberal intelligentsia, and, politically, with the Cadets, Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks. Whites did not trust the workers and were suspicious and sometimes vindictive towards the peasants. The White movement, unlike the Reds, failed to form a disciplined army, not to mention a state administration. Underestimating the organizational aspect, the whites failed to create a state apparatus, administration, police, banks, and money. They made up for their inability to conduct mobilizations and agitation with cruelty and terror when imposing their orders.
The Kolchak government was an ephemeral entity. Declaring its power over all of Siberia, it was wishful thinking, since the vast territory under Kolchak was a conglomerate of military principalities, only nominally subordinate to the Supreme Ruler. Kolchak’s generals were more concerned not with governing the territories they controlled, but with extracting from there everything that was required to support their military independence.
Denikin's army was more disciplined and centralized. However, Denikin himself admitted his powerlessness in restraining officers from Jewish pogroms and mass terror against the population. The inability of the generals to subjugate the army spoke of the impossibility of leading society as a whole, which remained outside the limits of their power. Those who welcomed and supported the white movement initially recoiled from it because of the pogroms, lawlessness, corruption and arbitrariness of the commanders.
Thumbnails Document Outline Attachments
Previous Next
Presentation Mode Open Print Download Go to First Page Go to Last Page Rotate Clockwise Rotate Counterclockwise Enable hand tool More Information Less Information
Enter the password to open this PDF file:
Cancel OK
File name:
File size:
Title:
Subject:
Keywords:
Creation Date:
Modification Date:
Creator:
PDF Producer:
PDF Version:
Page Count:
Close
Preparing document for printing...
PRIVATE EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION OF HIGHER EDUCATION EASTERN ECONOMIC-LEGAL HUMANITIES ACADEMY (VEGU Academy) Direction of training 03/46/01 – History Focus (profile) – Historical political science Petrenko Anastasia Olegovna COURSE WORK Red and white terror in the Civil War Supervisor Bob yleva Natalya Mikhailovna UFA 2016
Contents Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………………….…. 3 1. Theoretical basis for studying the current crisis situation in Russia during the revolutionary events of 1917. Consideration of the punitive actions of the two main warring parties of the Civil War: the “Reds” and the “Whites”....... ...........................................................................7 1.1. Revolutionary events of 1917. Collapse of the monarchical system in Russian Empire and the activities of the Provisional Government. Seizure of power by the Bolsheviks……………...………………………………………………………......7 1.2. Red terror in Russia. Repressive measures against civilians by representatives of the Bolshevik Party and supporters of the Soviets…………………………….……………………………………………………………...... 11 1.3. White terror during the Civil War. Repressive policy of anti-Bolshevik forces……………………………………………………………..17 2. Analysis of repressive methods and organizational structures of terror of both warring parties…………………… ….................................................. ..................23 2.1.Analysis of terrorist methods aimed at intimidating and subjugating the population in the occupied territories ……………………………………………23 2.2 .Consideration of the activities of the punitive authorities of the Bolsheviks and white governments………………………………………………………………………..26 3. Consideration of the process of theoretical and practical study of the topic of terror Civil war in post-Soviet Russia. Teaching and studying the theme of terror 1917-1922. in history lessons at school…………..28 3.1. The process of studying the problem of terror of the Civil War in the conditions of today's Russian science………………………………………………………...28 3.2 .The process of studying the theme of terror during the Civil War of the 1917-1920s. in history lessons at school. Presentation of material to students……………………….32
Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………….34 References……………………………………………………… ………………………...37
Introduction Civil war is the most terrible form of military conflict between various political factions. There are no rights in a civil war. It is impossible to remove responsibility from any one side of the conflict and place it entirely on the other, because all participants in this national drama are to blame. Their fault is that they allowed a fratricidal war to begin. The people who, as a result of the coup, took over power over a huge interethnic state and those who tried to regain power with the help of an internal military conflict are full-fledged culprits of the tragedy that the people of Russia experienced in the first quarter of the 20th century. From a purely scientific point of view, the civil war of 1917-1922. can be regarded as the natural finale of a collapsed empire, in which from the beginning of the 20th century. a systemic crisis was growing: the Russo-Japanese War, the revolutionary events of 1905, unfinished reforms, the First World War and what happened during it - the fall of the monarchy, the collapse of the country, the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks. All this together led to a split in Russian society at many levels. The result of all this is a fierce internal fratricidal struggle of different political trends, accompanied by foreign intervention and the rampant behavior of numerous gangs. Just as the Civil War was the result of a destroyed empire, so terror becomes a constant companion of this terrible war. Relevance this topic, lies in the need for an objective and comprehensive study of the problem of the use of terror by the two largest military-political formations in the period from 1918-1922. red and white. Today, the most objective and informative of the narrative sources is the monograph of Professor A.L. Litvin "Red and White Terror in Russia 1918-1922." B 3
In the modern historical, scientific, literary, journalistic and artistic space, a certain trend is emerging: the idealization of the White movement, its ordinary participants and leaders, and, as a contrast to it, the bloody Bolshevik regime, the terrible Red Terror. In the wake of the lifting of any ideological prohibitions and the amount of literature that appeared in the public domain, including emigrant literature, again, as many years ago, the “leaning” in one direction intensified, only the direction changed: whites are the heroes. In this regard, the difficulty arises of an objective, comprehensive study of the problem associated with the study of the topic of terror of the Red and White movements. And this despite the amount of journalistic and memoir literature, historical research that is available today not only to a specialist, but also to any interested person. The purpose of this work is to systematize knowledge on the topic of red and white terror. In this regard, the following tasks were formulated: 1. Study of theoretical data on the history of Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, the Civil War and the terrorist methods of the Red and White movements; 2. Comparison of repressive methods and law enforcement agencies of the Red and White movements, which pursued a policy of intimidation of civilians and repressive measures against opponents; 3. Consideration of the process of theoretical and practical study of the topic of terror that occurred during the Civil War in today's historical science; 4. Formation of a possible process for studying “Terror during the Civil War of 1917-1922” in history lessons at school. The object of this work is terror during the Civil War of 1917-1922. 4
The subject of the study is the existing problems in the study of terror used against various categories of citizens, the two most numerous opposing formations of the Civil War of 1917-1922. Among the most famous historical and journalistic works, the following works can be distinguished: S. P. Melgunov “Red Terror in Russia”, “How the Bolsheviks Seized Power”; N.N. Golovin “Russian counter-revolution in 1917 – 1918”; N.S. Kirmel “Special services of the White movement. 1918-1922. Counterintelligence", "Special services of the White movement. 19181922.Intelligence"; L.A. Yuzefovich " winter road. General A. N. Pepelyaev and anarchist I. Ya. Strod in Yakutia. 1922-1923", "Autocrat of the Desert: Baron R. F. Ungern-Sternberg and the world in which he lived"; A.L. Litvin “Red and White Terror in Russia in 1918-1922”; V. P. Buldakov “Red Troubles. The nature and consequences of revolutionary violence”; S.V. Volkov “Red Terror in Petrograd”, “Red Terror in the South of Russia”, “Red Terror in Moscow”, “Red Terror through the Eyes of Eyewitnesses” (compiler); I.S. Ratkovsky “Red Terror and the activities of the Cheka in 1918”; V.Zh. Tsvetkov “General Alekseev”, “The Formation of the Soviet political system. 1917–1941" (team of authors). Over the entire period of studying this issue in historical science, researchers have published many works. The above list of journalism is far from complete. Of the literature used in this work, the work of Professor A.L. most fully and objectively covers the topic of terror of the Civil War. Litvin "Red and White Terror in Russia". As mentioned above, today this is perhaps the most complete scientific work on this issue: Litvin, without taking sides, gives a large-scale picture of terror in the period from 1917 to 1922. Also worthy of attention is the work of the famous historian of the Russian Abroad S.P. Melgunov "Red Terror in Russia". From the title of the book it is clear which direction the author chose for research. Melgunov himself, who was 5
for a long time, in the position of a person arrested and sentenced to death, he could not harbor any positive feelings towards the Bolsheviks, but at the same time, his profession as a historian takes precedence over personal experiences, and he scrupulously and comprehensively studies the tragedy of the Red Terror, relying on the press of that time and the memories of eyewitnesses of the events. But, nevertheless, one cannot help but notice that the scientist’s attitude towards the “white terror” is rather lenient and, for the most part, justifiable. A valuable source for a researcher of this problem are those published not so long ago by Doctor of Historical Sciences S.V. Volkov, collections of memoirs of eyewitnesses and victims of the “Red Terror” in various regions of Russia. In the process of writing the course work, the works of such scientists as: A.L. were used. Litvin, S.P. Melgunov, I.S. Ratkovsky, G.V. Vernadsky, S.V. Volkov, A.N. Sakharov. The practical significance of this work lies in the fact that a systematized theoretical basis, as well as an analysis of terrorist methods and punitive authorities of the red and white formations, is possible for practical application in the process of studying this topic, both in higher educational institutions and in secondary schools in the classroom history. The work consists of an introduction, 3 references. 6 sections, conclusion, list
1. The theoretical basis for studying the current crisis situation in Russia during the revolutionary events of 1917. Consideration of the punitive actions of the two main warring parties of the Civil War: “Red” and “White” 1.1. Revolutionary events of 1917. The collapse of the monarchical system in the Russian Empire and the activities of the Provisional government. Seizure of power by the Bolsheviks In 1917, Russia, like many European states, entered an exhausted, warring, unstable country. World War strained all the forces of the state and society to the limit. Every day social and economic problems became more and more acute. On the eve of the February Revolution, as a result of which monarchical rule in Russia will end, it becomes clear that the war has created a crisis at all levels of society, which the ruling structure is not able to cope with. In February 1917, Russia lost legitimate power, and with it all institutions of power. Formally, the state continues to remain monarchical, but in fact it is already a republic. Revolutionary events broke out spontaneously, and the quick victory of the protesters came as a surprise to many political forces in the country. “Dual power” is being established in Russia. On February 27, in the midst of natural unrest, two opposing authorities were formed: the Provisional Committee of the State Duma, headed by Duma Chairman M.V. Rodzianko and the Provisional Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, representing the interests of workers. The Petrosoviet was headed by the Mensheviks N.S. Chkheidze, M.I. Skobelev and Socialist Revolutionary A.F. Kerensky. A few days later, namely on March 2, 1917, the Provisional Committee of the State Duma formed the Provisional Government 7, headed by
Prince G.E. Lvov, positioning itself as the government for the transitional period until the convening of the Constituent Assembly. Until this moment, real power belonged to the Petrograd Soviet, which in turn recognized the legitimacy of the Provisional Government. On the same day, March 2, an event occurred that affected the fate of the entire country: Nicholas II decides to abdicate the throne in favor of his brother Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich, and after the latter’s abdication, power was transferred to the Provisional Government. So, more than 300 years of rule of the Romanov dynasty in Russia ended, and with it the monarchical system itself. With the change of supreme power, the problems bedeviling Russia, exhausted by the war, the food and economic crisis, did not end on their own. The political and national crisis is beginning to develop more and more actively, and unrest at the front is becoming more frequent. Throughout 1917, the issue of war stood at the center of all political demands and became a catalyst for the revolutionary process. In April 1917, V.I. returned from emigration. Lenin literally instantly joins the political struggle. In the “April Theses,” the leader of the Bolshevik Party sets before his supporters the task of transition from the bourgeois to the socialist revolution. In the spring and autumn of 1917, a growing national crisis was observed. The government headed by A.F. Kerensky is catastrophically quickly losing its popularity. This occurs against the backdrop of the disintegration of the army and the reluctance of soldiers to continue the war “to the bitter end”; Bolshevik coup attempts in July 1917; mutiny of General L.G. Kornilov on August 25, 1917, which also speaks of an attempt to seize power, but this time by the military. Attempts to illegally seize power by the Provisional Government were suppressed. At the beginning of autumn, on September 1, 1917, Russia was proclaimed a republic, but this could no longer strengthen the position of the government. 8
At the same time, the influence of the Bolsheviks as a political force began to grow. The slogans “All power to the Soviets!” are beginning to gain popularity among the people. The gradual Bolshevisation of the Soviets begins. On October 25, 1917, a new stage begins in the history of Russia - the socialist, Soviet period. Victory of the radical, revolutionary movement. A detailed analysis and description of the events that occurred on October 25, 1917 in Petrograd, and then in Moscow, is not within the scope of this work. At the same time, it is impossible not to dwell on the consideration of the revolutionary coup, since subsequent events: the Civil War and intervention, the repressive policies of the warring parties are a consequence of October 1917. So, after the summer crisis, the Bolsheviks are heading for an armed seizure of power. The preparations for the uprising were carried out by famous and active members of the Bolshevik Party F.E. Dzerzhinsky, Ya.M. Sverdlov, A.S. Bubnov, M.S. Uritsky, L.D. Trotsky. To lead military operations against the government of the Military Revolutionary Committee, a special troika consisting of N.I. Podvoisky, G.I. Chudnovsky and V.A. Antonova-Ovseenko Famous historian and political figure S.P. Melgunov, in his journalistic study “How the Bolsheviks Seized Power,” recreates the picture of October 25, 1917. in Petrograd and the subsequent armed clash in Moscow, which came as a surprise to the Bolsheviks and lasted more than a week, ended with the establishment of Soviet power. Some historians, including Doctor of Historical Sciences S.V. Volkov, assess the Moscow uprising as the beginning of the Civil War. After coming to power, the Bolsheviks developed active political activities. In the very first days, the main decrees prepared by V.I. were ratified. Lenin: about a world “without annexations and indemnities”, Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia, Decree on Land. 9
In the first months after the revolution, the Bolsheviks began, as they say, to “tighten the screws” in the field of legal proceedings. In particular, a reform is being carried out, the purpose of which was the creation of a revolutionary tribunal (revolutionary tribunal), an emergency judicial body, which later became, along with the Cheka and local “chrekcheikas,” a body that carried out the Red Terror. Actually, immediately after the October Revolution and the seizure by the Bolsheviks, they began to impose their policy of coercion. 10 power
1.2. Red terror in Russia. Repressive measures against the civilian population by representatives of the Bolshevik Party and supporters of the Soviets. The Bolsheviks began to carry out punitive measures against civilians, persons declared class enemies, suspected of counter-revolutionary activities after the October Revolution, but the greatest scope of the “Red Terror” was witnessed in the period 1918 - 1922 On November 28, 1917, the Council of People's Commissars approved the prepared V.I. Lenin issued a decree on the arrest of the leaders of the civil war, which, according to the Bolsheviks, were representatives of the Cadet Party. After this, in particular, representatives of the Cadet Party F.F. were arrested. Kokoshkin and A.I. Shingarev, whose fate will be discussed below. At first, after the seizure of power, terror was carried out according to the expression of Professor S.V. Volkova is “quite chaotic.” Individual representatives of the “bourgeoisie” were arrested, both by order of the authorities and arbitrarily - on suspicion of “counter-revolution”, and were often killed on the way to places of detention. Thus, even before the campaign of terror began, on an “official” basis in Petrograd, representatives of the Romanov dynasty were arrested and then executed without trial or investigation: Nicholas II with his family (in Yekaterinburg), Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich (in Perm ), Grand Duchess Elizabeth Konstantinovich, Feodorovna, Konstantin princes of the imperial Konstantinovich blood: (junior), John Igor Konstantinovich and Prince Vladimir Pavlovich Paley (in Alapaevsk). A similar fate befell famous politicians F.F. Kokoshkin and A.I. Shingarev, killed by guards at the Mariinsk prison hospital in January 11
1918 And on April 1, 1918, General P.K. was shot in Taganrog. Rannenkampf. The shocking murder in Petrograd in March 1918 of three Genglez brothers, sons of the director of the Gatchina Orphanage, also committed without any procedural norms, caused a public outcry. Extrajudicial executions of church representatives are known. Thus, one of the “victims of the revolution” was the clergyman P.I. Skipetrov, shot by the Red Guards in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. Against the backdrop of all the known murders, the statement of one of the founders and leaders of the Cheka, Ya.Kh., looks absurd, if not cynical. Peters that before the murder of M.S. Uritsky did not carry out capital punishment in Petrograd. Another famous and “prominent” figure of the Cheka, M.I. Latsis spoke about the terror carried out by the Bolsheviks in the following way: “We are not waging war against individuals. We are exterminating the bourgeoisie as a class...” In Moscow, executions began at the end of 1917, at which time they began to gradually deal with the participants in the October battles, but these actions were not advertised. But already in the first half of 1918, reports of executions periodically began to appear in the press. The exact number of people executed in Moscow (as in any other cities, towns and villages) in the period from 1917-1920 is not known for certain. However, based on the information available to the researcher when studying this problem, we can conclude that, despite the fact that Moscow was one of the main centers of terror, the number of victims here is somewhat less than in Petrograd, Kronstadt, Kyiv, Kharkov, Odessa, Crimea and southern Russia. The first victims of the Red Terror on the very first day of the Decree were former tsarist ministers N.A., arrested and held in Butyrka prison. Maklakov, I.G. Shcheglovitov, A.N. Khvostov, director of the police department S.P. Beletsky, Archpriest John Vostogov and Bishop 12
Efrem (Kuznetsov). They were publicly shot as hostages in Petrovsky Park. The execution of the sentences of the Cheka took place in the already mentioned Petrovsky Park, on Khodynka, in the Khamovniki barracks, as well as in various city cemeteries. Somewhat later, the main place of executions became the territory of the Yauza hospital. The famous scientist-historian G.V. Vernadsky wrote about the Extraordinary Commission: “The Cheka acted ruthlessly and cruelly. One of the most common methods of its work was the taking of hostages from among the population who did not sympathize with the communists. In cases where anti-Bolshevik uprisings broke out - and especially when attempts were made on the lives of communist leaders - hostages who, as a rule, were not at all interested in politics and did not show their dissatisfaction in any way state power, without hesitation they were shot. If it was necessary to obtain some information or extract a confession from the victim, the Cheka employees did not disdain torture when they considered their use necessary...” In 1918, after the Left Socialist-Revolutionary rebellion and a series of assassination attempts on the leaders of the revolution, V. Volodarsky, M.S. Uritsky, V.I. Lenin, the Cheka becomes the highest body in the fight against counter-revolution. On June 6, 1918, a decree reinstating the death penalty was published and local Chekas became organs of terror. On August 30, 1918, an attempt was made on V.I. Lenin in Moscow, and in the “cradle of the revolution” - Petrograd, on the same day, student Leonid Kannegiser, killed the chairman of the Petrograd Cheka M.S. Uritsky. After these events, the Bolsheviks officially proclaimed the decree of September 5, 1918 “On the Red Terror.” In addition to this resolution, the Council of People's Commissars also approves the creation of camps in order to protect the revolution from class enemies. Probably, the Bolsheviks simply decided to take advantage of the situation to create “official” conditions for carrying out their repressive policies. 13
In the first days of September, in most district and provincial cities several dozen people were shot at a time, in Petrograd and the surrounding area - several hundred. Another evidence of those events of 1918 was left by G.V. Vernadsky in his work “Russian History”: “... in the winter of 1917-1918. The Cheka dealt with many victims, but the Red Terror reached its apogee only in the fall of 1918 after a series of attempts on the lives of Bolshevik leaders...” The Council of People’s Commissars’ resolution on the Red Terror gave the right to tighten terrorist actions, spreading them to all social groups, making terror widespread. Thus, the nobility and Cossacks were subject to liquidation, other segments of the population were warned. Since the second half of 1918, terror has been openly promoted. Terror turns, as Melgunov puts it, “...into a bloody, unbridled massacre.” This is what L.B. said on December 31, 1919. Kamenev, future victim of Stalin's terror of the 30s. : “Our terror was forced, this is not the terror of the Cheka, but of the working class.” The amazing ability of the Bolsheviks to justify their most terrible actions. The practice of hostage-taking was actively spreading, which was carried out not only in Petrograd and Moscow, but also in the territory of Russia that was controlled by the Bolshevik authorities. Wives and children were arrested for relatives - officers who participated in the white movement S.P. Melgunov also talks about the execution of children from 8-14 years old, which was practiced by the Special Department of the Cheka under the leadership of M.S. Kedrova. S.P. Melgunov recalls: “I remember these nights in 1920 in Butyrka prison before the amnesty issued on the anniversary of the October Revolution. They didn’t have time to bring the naked corpses of those shot in the back of the head to the Kalitnikovskoye cemetery..." 14
Members of the Romanov dynasty would be arrested as hostages and then shot in January 1919: Grand Dukes Georgy Mikhailovich, Dmitry Konstantinovich, Nikolai Mikhailovich and Pavel Alexandrovich; as well as Major General of the Fleet A.N. Rykov. Another of the Romanovs, the prince of the imperial blood, Gabriel Konstantinovich, was held hostage in the Peter and Paul Fortress. Only thanks decisive action spouses A.R. Nesterovskaya, he safely escaped execution and entered the border. On January 24, 1919, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR adopted a directive on carrying out “mass” terror against the Cossacks, best known as “decossackization.” The fate of Crimea after the departure of the army of General P.N. is also known. Wrangel and it would seem that with this the end of the Civil War. At that time, some of the military remained in Crimea, who did not leave the peninsula for one reason or another, and the civilian population also continued to live on the territory of Crimea. The part of the population that made up its elite was largely subjected to repression on the peninsula: the military, cultural and political intelligentsia. As usual, in such a case, the repressions were sanctioned from Moscow. The leaders of the punitive actions were the Chairman of the Crimean Revolutionary Committee Bela Kun, the Secretary of the Crimean Regional Committee of the RCP (b) R.S. Zemlyachka, heads of special departments of the Cheka, fronts and armies E.G. Evdokimov, V.N. Mantsev, K.Kh. Danishevsky, N.M. Bystrykh and others. After the occupation of Crimea by the Bolsheviks in 1920, there are known cases of extermination of disabled people and sick people who were taken to the place of execution from the Red Cross hospital. One of the witnesses to such arbitrariness was the working Bolshevik doctor S.V. Konstansov The Kharkov Cheka was also famous for its cruelty, where commandant S.A. carried out his “fair revolutionary trial”. Sayenko, who died safely in 1973, left behind a terrible memory. Viktor Smaznov, a participant in the Civil War, recalled his “activities”, 15
probably a Cossack (not known for certain), in the essay “In the Kharkov Emergency.” These memoirs, published in 1939 in the magazine “Free Cossacks”, were again presented to the public in the collection “Red Terror in the South of Russia” edited by S.V. Volkova. Despite all the above examples, those that remained unmentioned, extrajudicial killings in the revolutionary years, reliable statistics of victims of the Red Terror do not exist. The arbitrariness of all the warring parties to the conflict did not contribute to its creation. 16
1.3. White terror during the Civil War. Repressive policy of anti-Bolshevik forces Historian S.P. Melgunov, speaking about white terror, gave the following description of this phenomenon: “excesses based on unbridled power and revenge.” Comparing two directions of terrorist policy during the Civil War, the researcher emphasizes that white terror did not come directly from the command bodies of white power, unlike the red terror. White terror, like any other manifestation of violence against people, regardless of their nationality or religion, cannot be justified by any necessity. When studying this topic, a problem arises related to insufficient quantity sources available to the researcher. There are many eyewitness memories of the Red Terror of the Bolsheviks, which, although they may sometimes be quite subjective, still give an idea of the current situation during the period of events described. Historians are trying to compare the “red” and “white” terror, to compare both of these criminal regimes. In the summer of 1918, armed anti-Soviet uprisings began in a number of Volga cities of Yaroslavl, Rybinsk and Murom. Having captured part of the city, the leaders of the rebellion began terrorizing Soviet party workers. The victims of the rebels were the commissioner of the military district S. M. Nakimson and the chairman of the executive committee of the city council D. S. Zakiym. 200 arrested were taken to the “death barge” stationed on the Volga. These events became the beginning of the “white” terror. Particularly notorious was the phenomenon of the Civil War called “Atamanshchina” - uncontrolled armed formations. In a broad sense, “atamanism” is interpreted as a synonym for “white Bolshevism”, i.e. autocracy, arbitrariness, abuse of power 17
In a narrower sense, “atamanism” means a type of white volunteer movement with the participation of the Cossacks. In 1918, detachments of esauls of the Siberian Cossack army B.V. Annenkov and I.N. operated in Siberia. Krasilnikova. On Far East Two semi-partisan detachments played an important role: the Russian-foreign “Special Manchurian detachment” of the captain of the Transbaikal army G.M. Semenov and the “Special Cossack detachment” of the centurion of the Ussuri army I.P. Kalmykov. For a more precise conversation, it is worth explaining that in the full sense of the word, the detachments of these “atamans” were not any Cossack units. They did not have veche free Cossack traditions. The creators of these detachments, career officers, firmly maintained unity of command. The actions of these Cossack associations, which brutally dealt with not only supporters of the Soviets and the Bolshevik underground, but also terrorized the civilian population, remained in the history of Russia forever. B.V. “fought” in the Urals, Siberia, and the Far East. Annenkov (1890-1927), at the end of 1919 the commander of Kolchak’s separate Simirechensk army, hiding behind the motto: “We have no prohibitions!” God and Ataman Annenkov are with us, cut right and left!” His punitive detachments committed atrocities against the civilian population. In 1918, the Slavgorod-Chernodolsk outbreak broke out with the “Annenkovites”. The uprising was brutally suppressed. Thus, historian A. Litvin writes about this event: “On September 11, 1918, Annenkov’s “hussars” tortured and killed up to 500 people. Among them were 87 delegates of the peasant congress, who, on Annenkov’s orders, were hacked to death on the Slavgorod square in front of the people’s house and buried in a hole there. The village of Cherny Dol, in which the headquarters of the rebels was located, was burned to the ground; even the wives and children of the peasants were shot, fought and hanged on poles. Girls from Slavgorod and its environs were brought to Annenkov’s train, which was located at the city station, raped, and then shot.” 18
Materials on this uprising will become the basis of the investigative case against B.V., which began in 1926. Annenkova. Annenkov was tried in 1927 in Semipalatinsk, and there, by court verdict, he was shot on August 12, 1927. Another famous Cossack ataman and participant in the White movement, A.I. Dutov also adhered to a tough repressive policy. On April 3, 1919, by this time commanding a separate Orenburg army, A.I. Dutov gives the order to resolutely shoot and take hostages for the slightest unreliability. A few months later, namely on May 9, 1918, after the Cossacks captured the village of Aleksandrov-Gaya by Ataman Dutov, 96 captured Red Army soldiers were buried alive. Total in the village in different ways 675 people were executed. On May 27, 1918, a regime of terror was established in Chelyabinsk and Troitsk, and later on July 3 in Orenburg. One Orenburg prison held more than 6 thousand prisoners, of which about 500 were killed during interrogations. In Chelyabinsk, the “Dutovites” shot or transported 9 thousand people to prisons in Siberia. According to Soviet periodicals, in Troitsk, “Dutovites” shot about 700 people in the first weeks after the capture of the city. In Ilek they killed 400 people. Such mass executions were typical for Dutov’s Cossack troops. In August 1918, A.I. Dutov established the death penalty for resisting the authorities or deviation from military service. But perhaps the most famous of the Cossack atamans of the White movement was G.M. Semenov. “Semyonovshchina” is the largest and most politicized version of “Atamanshchina”. Semyonov actively laid claim to supreme power, and at the end of 1919, after numerous conflicts, he became the commander-in-chief of all rear troops of Kolchak’s army. Semyonov acted brutally in carrying out his plans. His punitive actions cannot be justified. Not only captured Red Army soldiers were punished, but also, as is typical for both opposing sides of this war, residents of settlements who were suspected of assisting the Bolsheviks or Red partisans. Many years after the events of the Civil War, in 1946 the 19th century began in the USSR.
the trial of the “Semenavtsy”, the main defendant in which will be Ataman G.M. himself. Semenov. During the investigation, he will openly talk about how, on his orders, people suspected of being loyal to the Soviets were shot, villages were burned, and civilians were robbed. Major General L.F., who once served under Semenov’s command. Vlasyevsky also pointed out that the military formations of Ataman Semenov terrorized the local population and brutally dealt with anyone suspected of assisting or sympathizing with the Bolsheviks. Separately, Vlasevsky noted the divisions of Baron Ugern and Tirbach. In 1918, Colonel M.A., captured near Belaya Glina, was killed. Zhebrak, the response to this murder was the order of the commander of the 3rd division of the Volunteer Army M. G. Drozdovsky to shoot about 1000 captured Red Army soldiers. Of no small importance is the activity of another famous leader of the White movement - Ataman P.N. Krasnov (1869 – 1947). This is what Candidate of History I.S. Ratkovsky writes in his book “Red Terror and the Activities of the Cheka in 1918”: “In the territories controlled by P.N. Krasnov, according to the Soviet press (for example, the Pravda newspaper) , the total number of victims in 1918 reached more than 30 thousand people. “I forbid arresting workers, but order them to be shot or hanged; I order all the arrested workers to be hanged on the main street and not removed for three days" - these inhuman words from the orders of the Krasnov esaul commandant of the Makeevsky district dated November 10, 1918.” In addition to the Cossack atamans, other participants in the White movement also carried out repressive measures. So, 2 weeks after coming to power, the Supreme Ruler of Russia, Admiral A.V. On December 3, 1918, Kolchak (1874 - 1920) signed a decree on the widespread introduction of the death penalty. These actions can be interpreted as a severe necessity in the conditions of the Civil War, but at the same time, the victims of these decisions were often people innocent of what they were accused of 20
On April 5, 1919, the commander of the Western army, one of the leaders of the White movement, General M.V. Khanzhin (1871-1961) ordered all peasants to surrender their weapons, otherwise all those responsible would be shot and their property and houses burned. Mass executions of prisoners of war were carried out with the consent of generals R. Gaida (1892-1948) and S.P. Rozanova (1869-1937) Another example of an inhumane order from the white high command. October 12, 1919 General K.N. Sakharov, the commander of the Western army, issues an order requiring the execution of every tenth hostage or resident, and in the event of a mass armed uprising against the army, the execution of all residents and the burning of the entire village to the ground. The repressive policy pursued by the government of General Denikin was similar to that pursued by Kolchak and other military dictators. The police located in the territory controlled by Denikin were called state guards. After the capture of Odessa, the Whites brutally dealt with the Bolsheviks. Actually, just like the Reds, they did not stand on ceremony with their political opponents and their associates when occupying this or that territory. Future leader of the EMRO and commander of the 1st Army Corps in Gollipoli A.P. Kutepov (1882-1930) was known for his tough character. Back in December 1919, during the occupation of Rostov-on-Don by the Whites, the general ordered prisoners of the local prison to be hanged from lamp posts along the main street. Later, already in evacuation, in Gallipoli, he will also brutally suppress any disobedience and decay in the units subordinate to him. The attitude towards prisoners of war was also cruel. The punitive policy of the whites was not much different from the actions of the reds. For example, both the Bolsheviks and the Whites practiced the use of so-called “Death Barges”. Floating prisons, for which river ships were equipped vehicles, usually 21
total cargo barges. Cargo barges, used as floating prisons, were used in the punitive practice of both the Whites and the Reds. In 1918, two barges were installed on the Kama, which became the location for all the “extra” prisoners. In one of them, within a few days, out of 600 prisoners, 150 people were killed. There are known cases when a barge, during the retreat of the whites, was burned along with the people on it. Barges were also places where prisoners were housed in Siberia, during the period of white governments. Such massive illegal reprisals against political opponents were typical during the Civil War, both red and white. 22
2. Analysis of repressive methods and organizational structures of terror of both warring parties 2.1. Analysis of terrorist methods aimed at intimidating and subjugating the population in the occupied territories. This paragraph will examine certain aspects of the terrorist policy of the Whites and Reds, such as: arrests, organization of prisons, hostage-taking, organization of concentration camps. For more visual examples of terrorist methods, those used in Table 1 are presented by the warring parties during the Civil War Table 1. Common force methods of the Bolsheviks and White Guards Red terror White terror Executions Hostages Torture Concentration camps Confiscation of property Expulsion from the country Executions Hostages Torture Concentration camps Confiscation of property - Judging by the historical sources available today (journalistic, historical works, memoirs, photographic documents), executions are becoming the most common method of eliminating a person. The practice included mass executions of the “class enemy,” imprisonment in concentration camps, and hostage-taking. The Cheka received the right to execute without trial, which it actively used. These methods of the Anti-Soviet camp were also practiced by white counterintelligence. did not lag behind with similar measures - all the same reprisals, dungeons, victims. 23
As mentioned above, the institution of hostages received its greatest development immediately after September 5, 1918, although even before that day, of course, the Bolsheviks arrested “class enemies”: “bourgeois”, intelligentsia, etc. Arrests took place, as a rule, at night, along with a search in the apartment of the person who was subject to arrest. So, in the memoirs of Princess A.R. Romanova (Nesterovskaya), the wife of the prince of imperial blood Gabriel Konstantinovich, is given a picture of a typical night visit of commissars for that time. In addition, the Bolsheviks also practiced raids, during which people from various segments of the population were arrested and taken hostage. The main places of the Peter and Paul Fortress, the detention of “Crosses” in and Petrograd transit - in addition to the prison (House of Pretrial Detention) on Shpalernaya 25 - were the arrest premises on Gorokhovaya, 2 (the Petrograd Provincial Cheka was located here), the Deryabinsky Barracks on Vasilyevsky Island were converted into prisons , as well as a prison hospital on Goloday Island. Physical torture was used in all institutions mentioned in this work. All this was aimed at humiliating human dignity and causing him bodily suffering and, as one can judge, such actions were not always carried out in order to find out the information of interest to investigators. Thus, the famous Kharkov security officer Sayenko gained a reputation as a sadist who used the most sophisticated torture during his interrogations. The security officer M.S. will go to the North to organize the first concentration camps and implement the policy of “red terror” in the Arkhangelsk, Vologda, Vyatka regions (provinces), as well as in Karelia. Kedrov. Near Kholmogory in 1921. a concentration camp will begin to operate, as well as in Ukhta, Vologda, Arkhangelsk. The memoirs of an eyewitness to 24 events, published by S.P., have been preserved.
Melgunov: “In Arkhangelsk, Kedrov, having gathered 1200 officers, puts them on a barge near Kholmogory and then machine gun fire opens on them - up to 600 were killed!” . As for the practice of arrests of White governments in the territories they occupied, they often occurred on the basis of denunciations or organized search operations to identify communists, employees of Soviet institutions, and military experts of the Red Army, as happened in Arkhangelsk after the anti-Bolshevik coup and the occupation of the city by Allied troops. Those arrested were, as a rule, taken to Arkhangelsk prison. The punishment was execution or sent to hard labor in the Mudyug camp established in 1918. As can be seen from the above, the repressive policies of both the Whites and the Reds consisted of identical terrorist methods, the only exception being forced deportation from the country, which was used by the Bolsheviks. But again, this version of punishment was the exception rather than the rule. The most famous act of expulsion from Russia was the forced expulsion of members of the intelligentsia in 1922, initiated by Lenin. Representatives of the white government, during the Civil War, for natural reasons could not use this method. Another significant difference in the practice of terror was that the whites, unlike the reds, did not proclaim terror as their state policy and did not openly call for violent actions. 25
2.2. Consideration of the activities of the punitive authorities of the Bolsheviks and white governments. This chapter will examine the organizational structures pursuing the policy of terror. The Bolshevik Cheka and the White counterintelligence as the two main punitive bodies that left a terrible memory of themselves and the events of 1917-1922. among the people. At the end of 1917, on the initiative of F.E. Dzerzhinsky will create the Cheka institution, which over time in Russian history has become a symbol of terror, repression and ruined human destinies. Thus, many years later, historian G.V. recalled the “Punitive Sword of the Revolution”. Vernadsky: “The atrocities committed by the Cheka during that period were not random violations of the law... The official activities of the Cheka were directed against the bourgeoisie. However, in reality, the Cheka exterminated everyone it suspected of resisting the Soviet government. Its victims were not limited to representatives of the upper and middle classes, they included peasants, often workers...” Revolutionary tribunals (revolutionary tribunals) are emergency judicial bodies that existed in Soviet Russia in 1918 - 1923. Revolutionary tribunals, along with the Cheka and local emergency commissions, carried out the Red Terror. More than a dozen concentration camps were organized in Moscow, of which the following can be distinguished: Novospassky, Andronevsky, Ivanovsky, Rozhdestvensky, Znamensky, Andreevsky, Kozhukhovsky, Novo-Peskovsky, Pokrovsky, Ordynsky, Vladykinsky, etc. There is reason to believe that on the territories of these monasteries there were also executions. On December 7, 1917, on the initiative of F.E. Dzerzhinsky, who also became the first chairman, the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (VChK) was created to combat counter-revolution, profiteering, and sabotage. Popularly, this organization becomes known as “Emergency”, “Che-Ka” or as 26
gives another example by S.P. Melgunov deciphering the abbreviation: “VChK - Kaput to Every Man.” Initially, the Cheka was created as an investigative body; its repressive measures were limited to confiscation of property. Gradually, unlimited power is concentrated in the hands of the Cheka: the right to take hostages, conduct searches and investigations, pronounce sentences and carry them out. The Cheka becomes the main conductor of terror, but its implementation was supervised by the Bolshevik leadership. During the Civil War, the Cheka was led by Dzerzhinsky, Peters, and Ksenofontov. Diagram 1 shows the organizational structure of the terror of the white and red movements in 1917-1920. Scheme 1. Repressive bodies 1917-1920. Organizational structure of terror Red terror Cheka White terror Counterintelligence Revolutionary tribunals Military courts Increasingly, researchers place “white” counterintelligence on a par with the Bolshevik Che-KA, which also mercilessly pursued its repressive policy against many categories of citizens in the occupied territory. Counterintelligence carried out its duties on the basis of a whole range of sources: reports from its own agents; police agencies; observations, radio interception; information provided by individuals. 27
Obtaining information from allied counterintelligence services, which were, by and large, competitors. The main Bolshevik counterintelligence forces were underground, which were aimed at fighting a serious threat to the security of the White Guard regime. In this regard, the introduction of repressive measures, field trials, executions, and imprisonment begins. In January 1920 during interrogations in Irkutsk, Supreme Ruler Admiral A.V. Kolchak said that people were recruited to serve in counterintelligence “... completely unprepared for such work... and the grounds on which the actions of the counterintelligence bodies were carried out were completely arbitrary, not provided for by any rules...”. The actions of counterintelligence outraged many representatives of the generals, since this, for obvious reasons, negatively affected the reputation of all White governments as a whole. But, nevertheless, no one took real measures to regulate the activities of counterintelligence and political service. In many respects, the question remains open: is white counterintelligence a “synonym” for the Cheka? Or is it a fundamentally different organization? Based on the above, then again the methods used in both the Cheka and counterintelligence are of the same type. It is unknown how developed the practice of physical pressure on those arrested was, but there is no doubt about its use, knowing in general the violent policy of various military formations of the White governments. 28
3. Consideration of the process of theoretical and practical study of the theme of terror of the Civil War in post-Soviet Russia. Teaching and studying the theme of terror 1917-1922. in history lessons at school 3.1. The process of studying the problem of terror of the Civil War in the conditions of today's Russian science The historical and historiographic study of the problems of the civil war in general and terror in particular, throughout the entire period of the Soviet Union, was very subjective and one-sided. Back in the 1920s, a very short amount of time after the war, in domestic science, due to the predominance of ideological attitudes, researchers in their works began to address only the problem of “white” terror. For many years, the dominant position in historical science will be occupied by the dogma that “the red terror was a response to the white terror.” With the collapse of the USSR, the ideological attitudes of researchers and science in general also become a thing of the past. Domestic historiography began to study all previously “forbidden” topics: the October Revolution, the Red Terror during the Civil War, the famine of the early 30s. in a number of regions of the country, dispossession and deportation of the peoples of Russia, Stalinist terror, etc. In general, everything that was not subject to comprehensive and reliable research in the Soviet Union. In addition, archives are beginning to be opened, although even today specialists do not have access to all documents. Historians are also beginning to study and publish about the White movement and its leaders, who in Soviet historical science were presented in only one color scheme. More objective information also appears on the phenomenon of “white” terror of the Civil War. In domestic historical science in the Soviet Union, the main attention, as already mentioned, was paid to the problem of “white” terror, as a punitive policy of former tsarist generals. But at the same time, studying 29
social confrontation and terror during the Civil War, in addition to Soviet historians, was carried out by emigrant historians and foreign historians. Today, these studies are becoming available not only to researchers, but also to a wider audience. The most famous emigrant historian is Sergei Pavlovich Melgunov, who devoted his research work to collecting and systematizing information about the “red” terror of the Bolsheviks and related topics. In today's Russian historical science, the problems of the Civil War continue to be actively studied, and the punitive actions of various warring parties in this internal war are studied. It is worth noting that in addition to purely desk, archival and journalistic work, today in the system of studying the history of the Civil War and the accompanying terrorist policies, archaeological work related to the discovery of mass graves is also beginning to be practiced. Thus, archaeological work was carried out on the territory of the Peter and Paul Fortress for several years. This was due to the fact that the remains of victims of the “Red Terror” were discovered here. The first burials were discovered on Hare Island back in 1988 during repair work. Investigating the terrible finds, experts came to the conclusion that the human remains had lain in the ground for about 100 years. Almost 20 years later, in 2007, under similar circumstances, another burial was discovered between the Kronverkskaya embankment and the wall of the Golovkin Bastion. In addition to the remains, fragments of military uniforms dating from 1907 to 1916 were also found in this burial. There are no documents about the events that took place in the Peter and Paul Fortress in the period 1917-1919. A couple of years later, in 2009, human remains were again discovered near the wall of the Golovkin Bastion; after inspection, it became clear that there was a collective burial in this place. In addition to bone remains, fragments of clothing and 30 other items were also found in the grave.
finds. Military costume experts were brought in to work on this site. Researchers carried out long and painstaking work to identify those buried in a mass grave. The archives were examined to see if they contained any documents containing information about those arrested and executed during this period of time and in this place; The press of 1917-1919 was studied, in which execution lists could be published. Anthropological analyzes carried out separately for each of the found graves yielded their own results, for example, more accurate age categories of those killed. As a result of archaeological prospecting work on the territory of the Peter and Paul Fortress in 2009–2010. 7 burial sites of victims of the “Red Terror” of 1918-1919 were discovered and explored. – at least 110 people. Anthropological and age-sex analysis of the buried allowed us to draw the conclusion that the overwhelming majority of those buried were men. Judging by the bones and fragments women's clothing, we can tentatively talk about 56 women. More than half of the men are aged 25-40 years, then 40-50 years old, a small group is aged 18-20 and over 55 years old. One teenager is under 18 years old. The case also received public outcry “ Royal family", in particular, the identification of bone remains discovered separately from the general burial in the Ganina Pit. The urgent question is whether these remains belong to Tsarevich Alexei and Grand Duchess Maria, who were shot in July 1918, apparently still remains open 31
3.2. The process of studying the theme of terror during the Civil War of the 1917-1920s. in history lessons at school. Presenting material to students During history lessons, the teacher will have to talk to students about a difficult, tragic period in the history of Russia. How can we do this in a more accessible form for a teenager to understand and perceive? When studying this topic, it is necessary to instill in the minds of children the axiom of non-acceptance of war and the use of force to resolve social, military, and political conflicts. Through the prism of the tragedy of the civil war as a people's misfortune, in which there are no winners or those who are right in their actions, students will have to draw a conclusion for themselves about the need to choose other, non-forceful ways to resolve political and social issues in modern society. By using various materials that the teacher has at his disposal: historical sources, works of art, photographic documents, memories of eyewitnesses, it is necessary with the help of this to recreate, as far as possible, a reliable picture of the events of that period. The most pressing question in this whole topic of the Civil War and terror is: who is to blame? It is impossible to give a definite answer to this question. All those who participated in this fratricidal war are guilty, they are guilty for allowing this to happen. Students must understand that the very posing of the question “who is to blame?” immoral, and the main value in the world is not any ideology, but human life. When studying this topic, full of terrible and difficult moments in which there was so much evil, injustice, violence, humiliation of human dignity, children develop a deep sense of empathy, heightened justice, denial of violence and rejection of evil. In achieving such a perception of all facets of the national tragedy of the Civil War, students will be helped by examples from artistic culture: literature, films, fine arts, etc. 32
To form a picture for teenagers of the events that took place almost 100 years ago, you can turn not only to historical works, but also to fiction telling about that period. So, you can read and analyze excerpts from such works as: “The Sun of the Dead” by I.S. Shmeleva, “Quiet Don” by M. A. Sholokhov, “Doctor Zhivago” by B.L. Pasternak, poetry by M. A. Voloshin, M.I. Tsvetaeva, “The White Guard” and “Running” by M.A. Bulgakov, “Cursed Days” by I.A. Bunin, etc. To immerse themselves in the era, students can be offered to work with the texts of Bolshevik decrees: “on the Red Terror,” “order on hostages,” “order No. 171 on the fight against “Antonovism,” etc.; as well as orders from representatives of the White movement. Read excerpts from journalism on the topic being studied: S.P. Melgunov, A.L. Litvin, I.S. Ratkovsky, etc. Viewing photographic documents will also contribute to immersion in the topic and atmosphere of the time. There are no “easy” and “simple” topics when studying the history of any country, including Russia. But topics related to violence, humiliation of human dignity, and mass repression of civilians are especially difficult to perceive. Students, during conversations in class, must come to the conclusion and realize that it is very easy to unleash such conflicts that turn into a national tragedy, which means it is necessary to make sure that this never happens again. 33
Conclusion Sometimes it seems that the Civil War is not over yet. From the battle fronts it moved into society, continuing to divide people into whites and reds, right and wrong, criminals and victims, winners and losers. Perhaps this is due to the fact that in Russia they still cannot remember all the victims of that terrible fratricidal war, which once and for all turned the history of the entire country upside down, killing and maiming some, and making others outcasts. The civil war is a national tragedy and the past must not be allowed to be forgotten, but at the same time, the echo of war must stop resounding in souls and thoughts with hatred towards the opposite side of the conflict. We must remember the most tragic moments of history, the reasons that led to the catastrophe of a person who was capable of such horrors so that it would never happen again. Many participants in the Civil War are known to history; as a rule, these are leaders of various warring parties and political trends. But at the same time, the names of people who suffered from terrorist tyranny, victims of the repressive policies of the Bolsheviks, the White government, Makhnovists, etc. are little known. The same applies to exact numbers - there are none, there are no statistics on those shot, hanged, or tortured in the Cheka and counterintelligence. drowned on barges, Today much is known about the execution of the Royal Family and the murders of other members of the House of Romanov, famous political figures and artists, clergy, military experts, scientists, but how many more human destinies and lives were lost in the whirlwind of one of the most terrible local conflicts in history unknown. For a productive dialogue, first of all, it is necessary to have reliable and objective information on the issues of both types of terror. 34
As has been said more than once above, the problem of white terror is poorly reflected in the works of modern historians. While the Red Terror receives much more attention from modern researchers. Starting to become interested in the topic of the punitive policy of the whites, the first thing that comes into view is the works of Soviet authors, who, as we know, are overly ideological. After the collapse of the USSR, a “flow” of previously prohibited literature came to Russia, including journalistic studies by emigrant authors, including S.P. Melgunov, whose works have already been mentioned more than once in this work. One of the most famous books of the Russian diaspora was the book by investigator N.A., published in 1990 in Russia. Sokolov “The Murder of the Royal Family”, which is a description of the investigation into the execution of Nicholas II and his family in Yekaterinburg. To date, the most complete study of the problem of red and white terror during the Civil War is the work of A.L. Litvin “Red and White Terror in Russia 1918 – 1922”, also used to write this work. There is relatively little information or memories left about the repressive actions of representatives of the White governments, compared with what we have today from the literature about the Red Terror. Speaking about the material about the punitive policy of the Bolsheviks, it is especially worth noting a series of collections published under the editorship of the famous historian S.V. Volkova are the memories of eyewitnesses and participants in the events published in different period time outside of Russia, and today published under the same cover. The Iris Press publishing house created the series “ White Russia", which includes books by famous representatives of the Russian emigration. The collections in question include memoirs of people who survived the Cheka prisons, who lost relatives and friends during the years of terror in Petrograd, Moscow, and the south of Russia. It is possible that today these journalistic collections of memoirs are some of the most significant evidence of the Bolshevik terror that is available to the public. It is necessary to conduct research on the activities of Bely 35
movements in the occupied territories of Siberia, what is known today, as a rule, is of a generalized nature. Today's society is sharply divided, as it was many years ago, into reds and whites. Priority is given to the latter, forgetting (or not knowing) about exactly the same cruel activities against both prisoners and civilians as on the part of the Bolsheviks. The only difference is in the ideology of these movements. As can be seen from the text of the proposed work, the methods and organizational structures that carried out terror on both the one side and the other are identical. The differences can probably only be in the massive scale of such operations and the number of victims, although all available figures are mostly arbitrary, and it is most likely not necessary to find out reliable data. Neither the Reds nor the Whites kept statistics of their victims. Nobody needed evidence that so eloquently testified to these bloody regimes. The purpose of the presented work was to systematize knowledge on the topic of terror of the white and red movements during the Civil War. To achieve this goal, it was necessary to solve a number of previously formulated tasks. Thus, in conclusion of this work, we can say that, based on the sources available to the author, a theoretical framework on the topic “Red and White Terror during the Civil War” was systematized, which reveals aspects of the repressive policies of the Red and White movements. In addition, a comparative analysis of the methods and existing power structures of both warring sides was carried out. During this comparison, identity features emerged in the methods of violent politics and the importance of punitive authorities. The process of theoretical and practical study in today's historical science of the theme of terror of the Civil War was also considered, which is especially important in connection with the upcoming anniversaries of the events being studied. Most theoretical and practical studies 36
comes down to working in archives, digitizing and publishing materials on the issue being studied. The process of teaching this topic in educational institution, in particular in high school. The problem with terror is that this topic can be interpreted from different points of view, and it is very important that the material available to the teacher and received from various sources, was taught to students from the most objective positions. Thus, while studying the history of the Civil War at Higher School, Research Institute; While studying archival documents, it is important not to lose sight of how the same topic is studied in today’s Russian schools. It is important to present young emerging personalities with information in a detailed, objective form, helping children independently draw conclusions, compare and analyze events that have occurred from the heights of past years. Disputes continue to rage in society about the burial of Lenin’s body; these debates are especially relevant against the backdrop of the possible burial of the remains of the bodies of Tsarevich Alexei and Grand Duchess Maria. The opinion is increasingly being expressed that this will be another step towards reconciliation, farewell to the Civil War, which has not let go of people to this day. 37
LIST OF REFERENCES Monographs, textbooks, teaching aids 1. Vernadsky, G.V. Russian history: Textbook. allowance/G.V. Vernadsky - M.: Agraf, 1997. - 544 p. 2. Volkov, S.V. Red terror in Petrograd: Anthology / S.V. Volkov – M.: Iris – press, 2011. – 528 p. 3. Volkov, S.V. Red terror in Moscow: Anthology / S.V. Volkov – M.: Iris – press, 2013. – 496 p. 4. Volkov, S.V. Red Terror in the South of Russia: An Anthology / S.V. Volkov – M.: Iris – press, 2013. – 544 p. 5. Litvin, A.L. Red and White Terror in Russia 1918-1922: Monograph/A.L. Litvin – M.: Eksmo, 2004. – 448 p. 6. Melgunov, S.P. How the Bolsheviks seized power: Monograph / S. P. Melgunov - M.: Iris-press, 2014. – 656 p. 7. Melgunov, S.P. Red terror in Russia.: Monograph / S. P. Melgunov M.: Iris-press, 2008. –408 p. 8. Nesterova, M.B. Domestic history.: Textbook. allowance / M.B. Nesterova - M.: Yurayt, 2013 - 415 p. 9. Ratkovsky, I.S. Red terror and the activities of the Cheka in 1918: Monograph/I.S. Ratkovsky - St. Petersburg: St. Petersburg State University, 2006 - 288 p. 10. Sakharov, A.N. History of Russia from ancient times to the present day: textbook. allowance in 2 volumes. T.2/ A.N. Sakharov – M.: Prospekt, 2008 – 720 p. Articles, scientific publications 11. Sorokin, A.K. “Red terror overshadowed the great victory of Soviet power...” / A.K. Sorokin // Rodina – 2016. - No. 816(8). 38
12. Timerbulatov, D.L. “Barges of Death” in Siberia during the Civil War (1918-1919) / D.L. Timerbulatov // Bulletin of Kemerovo University. – 2011. - No. 4. – P. 57-62 13. Shuldyakov, V.A. Atamanism as a phenomenon of the Civil War in the east of Russia / V.A. Shuldyakov // Bulletin of Novosibirsk State University. – 2006. -No. 1. – S. – 37-41 39
The Red Terror was officially proclaimed by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of Soviets (VTsIK) on September 2, 1918 and ended on the anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, on November 6 of the same year. However, the Red Terror is usually referred to as a set of repressive measures used by the Bolsheviks against their enemies from the time they came to power until the end of the Civil War (until 1922).
White terror refers to similar repressions of opponents of the Bolsheviks in the same period. For the first time in history, the definition of “white terror” was used in relation to the actions of royalists during the Bourbon Restoration in France (1814-1830) in relation to individual figures of the revolution and the Napoleonic empire. He was called white after the color of the Bourbon banner. The Russian counter-revolution took the name “White Guard” for its armed forces from the same story.
The boundaries of the concepts of “red terror” and “white terror” are very vague. Do they include only executions carried out by special authorities, or also any acts of retaliation and intimidation committed by troops in places of hostilities? Should the acts of violence of such opponents of the Bolsheviks as the Directory of the Ukrainian People's Republic, the Baltic states, Poland, the Czechoslovak Corps, Cossack troops, peasant rebel armies in Russia (the army of Alexander Antonov in the Tambov region, the West Siberian Army, etc.) be considered as white terror? ?
Due to the collapse of state and social institutions during that period, it is impossible to even approximately compile statistics of such repressions. More or less accurately, the number of victims of terror on both sides can only be determined in small Finland, where a civil war also raged from January to May 1918. It is generally accepted that the White Terror in Finland was bloodier than the Red Terror. The first claimed the lives of approximately 7-10 thousand people, the second - 1.5-2 thousand. However, the power of the radical left in Finland was too short-lived to draw any final conclusions on this basis, much less extend them to the whole of Russia.
Terror became one of the main tools for creating a new society from the very first steps of Soviet power. At first, the actions of intimidation were spontaneous, such as the shooting of captured cadets after the suppression of their rebellion in Petrograd on October 29 and the capture of the Moscow Kremlin on November 2, 1917. But soon the conduct of terror was systematized and put on stream. On December 7 (20), 1917, for this purpose, the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (VChK) “to combat counter-revolution and sabotage” was formed. Within its framework, their own armed forces. However, other bodies of Soviet power, especially locally, and military units carried out their own repressions.
The control of terror among the anti-Bolshevik forces was less centralized. Usually, various types of “counterintelligence” were involved in intimidation. Their actions were poorly coordinated, were unsystematic, chaotic, and therefore they were ineffective as a mechanism of political repression. It is often noted that the White Guards and Petliurists in Ukraine organized pogroms against Jews, but units of the Red Army were also guilty of this.
The Red Terror was directed against entire social groups as “class aliens.” The decree of the Council of People's Commissars on the Red Terror of September 5, 1918 introduced the institution of hostage-taking. For a terrorist act against a figure of the Soviet government, hostages taken from the so-called “bourgeoisie” - former civil servants, intelligentsia, clergy, etc. - were subject to execution. In the first week of the decree alone, according to incomplete data, more than 5,000 people were shot, since they bore “class responsibility” for F. Kaplan’s attempt on Lenin’s life.
The orders of Soviet leaders testify to the purposeful nature of the Red Terror. “To carry out merciless mass terror against priests, kulaks and White Guards,” Lenin telegraphed on August 9, 1918 to the Penza provincial executive committee after Penza was recaptured from the White Czechs. “The suspects should be locked up in a concentration camp outside the city.” “We are exterminating the bourgeoisie as a class,” taught one of Dzerzhinsky’s deputies, M. Latsis. “During the investigation, do not look for materials and evidence that the accused acted in deed or word against the Soviet regime.”
There was nothing similar in the statements of the anti-Bolshevik leadership. True, according to the memoirs of G.K. Gins, a member of the White Guard government in Siberia, A.V. Kolchak admitted to him that he had given the order to shoot all captured communists. However, no written traces of such an order remain. Some atamans of the Cossack troops subordinate to Kolchak (Annenkov, Kalmykov) committed atrocities against the Red partisans, completely burning down the villages in which they were hiding. But the Reds acted even more cruelly, and in accordance with the instructions of the Soviet authorities, suppressing the peasant uprising in the Tambov province. The Plenipotentiary Commission of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee for the suppression of the rebellion of A. Antonov issued such an order on June 11, 1921, signed by V.A. Antonov-Ovseenko and M.N. Tukhachevsky:
"1. Citizens who refuse to give their name are shot on the spot, without trial.
2. To the villagers who are hiding weapons, announce a verdict on taking hostages and shoot them if they do not surrender their weapons.
3. The family in whose house the bandit took refuge is subject to arrest and deportation from the province, its property is confiscated, the senior worker in this family is shot without trial.
4. Families harboring family members or property of bandits shall be treated as bandits and the senior employee of this family shall be shot on the spot without trial.
5. In the event of the escape of the bandit’s family, its property should be distributed among peasants loyal to the Soviet regime, and the houses left behind should be burned.
6. This order must be implemented severely and mercilessly.”
Although it is impossible to accurately determine the number of victims of bilateral terror in Russia, it can be reasonably assumed that there were several times more deaths as a result of the Red Terror than during the White Terror. Considering the lack of ideological justification among whites, centralization and systematic punitive measures, one can generally question the legitimacy of such a definition as “white terror” in relation to the events of the Civil War in Russia.
103. "Red Terror" and "White Terror"
Revolutions are not made with white gloves... Why be indignant that counter-revolutions are made with iron fists?
I.A. Bunin
The history of the White Movement we are considering is coming to an end, so it is worth taking a closer look at some of the factors accompanying the entire civil war. For example, the phenomenon of terror. As you know, it is usually divided into “red” and “white”. Let's touch on red first. Many examples of its implementation have already been given in other chapters, and it hardly makes sense to bring up specific facts again. They are too numerous, and listing them, even superficially, would take up too much space. Those interested can be recommended to refer to S.P. Melgunov’s book “Red Terror”, which was based on the materials of the Denikin commission to investigate Bolshevik atrocities. Let us qualitatively analyze how the phenomenon of “red terror” differed from the classic cruelties of paramilitary regimes and repressive campaigns in some other states. We can come to the conclusion that it differed in scope, direction and internal content, with the first and second directly following from the third.
Terror, which had been gradually spreading since the victory of Soviet power, was openly legalized and introduced into the system immediately after the establishment of one-party rule - in the summer of 18th, along with food appropriation, a ban commodity relations" white". He, too, was an integral part of the new order created by the Bolsheviks. The peculiarity of the “Red Terror” is that it was not a punishment for any offenses. And not even a method of suppressing opponents - that was just one of its functions. It was not a means to achieve any specific goal, but at the same time it was an end. One of the foundations of the communist order under construction - and this foundation, in turn, was built and improved together with others components"new society". In the monstrous dystopia of the Leninist state with the party leadership giving orders and the cogs-executors blindly implementing them, terror was supposed to perform the same functions as later in Nazi Germany carried out death camps: to destroy those parts of the population that do not fit into the scheme outlined by the Leader and are therefore considered superfluous. Or at some stages they begin to interfere with the implementation of the overall plan
This was not yet the terror of the Stalinist camps, which used slave labor of people rejected by the regime. After all, according to Lenin’s original plan, the whole country was supposed to become such a camp, giving free labor on command and receiving a ration of bread in return. Therefore, people deemed unsuitable for such a scheme simply had to be exterminated. Hence the direction of terror. Since the right to think, make plans and draw conclusions in the new society was granted only to the party elite, it was the thinking part of the population that turned out to be superfluous and in the way. First of all, the intelligentsia, as well as the adjacent layers of citizens who have learned and are accustomed to thinking for themselves, for example, the cadre workers of Tula or Izhevsk, the most advanced and economic part of the peasantry, declared “kulaks.” Therefore, the “Red Terror” did not just carry out mass destruction of people - it sought to destroy the best. He suppressed everything cultural and progressive, killed the very soul of the people in order to replace it with a party propaganda surrogate. There was a kind of “zombification” of an entire people. Ideally, for such purposes, a permanent punitive apparatus should have “cut off” everything that rose in the slightest degree above the gray mass suitable for unconditional obedience.
Naturally, for such extensive tasks a very powerful repressive system was required. And it was created - multi-layered, covering the entire country with a network of terror: the Cheka, people's courts, the several types of tribunals listed earlier, army special departments. Plus the rights to repression granted to commanders and commissars, party and Soviet commissioners, food detachments and detachments, and local authorities. The basis of this entire complex apparatus was, of course, the Cheka. It was they who not only punished specific offenses, but also carried out a nationwide, centralized policy of terror.
We can only guess about the extent of the repressions and judge approximately, based on indirect data (and it is unlikely, given the Bolshevik carelessness, that any complete accounting of those destroyed was kept). Thus, the executioner-theorist Latsis in his book “Two Years of Struggle on the Internal Front” cited the figure of 8,389 people executed. with many caveats.
Firstly, this number refers only to 1918 and the first half of 1919, i.e. it does not take into account the summer of 1919, when many people were exterminated “in response” to the offensive of Denikin and Yudenich, when “executions according to the lists” began ", when, when the whites approached, hostages and prisoners were shot, drowned in barges, burned or exploded along with prisons (as, for example, in Kursk). The years 1920–1921, the years of the main reprisals against the defeated White Guards, members of their families and “accomplices,” are also not taken into account.
Secondly, the figures given refer only to the Cheka “in the manner of extrajudicial execution”; it does not include the actions of tribunals and other repressive bodies.
Thirdly, the number of those killed was given only for 20 central provinces, not including the front-line provinces, Ukraine, Don, Siberia, etc., where the security officers had the most significant “amount of work”
And fourthly, Latsis emphasized that these data are “far from complete.” Indeed, even with all the reservations, they look understated. In Petrograd alone and in just one campaign, after the assassination attempt on Lenin, 900 people were shot. However, casuistry is possible here, since in the “Lenin days” they were shot not “in the order of extrajudicial execution”, but “in the order of the Red Terror”.
A special feature of the “Red Terror” was that it was carried out centrally, according to the instructions of the government - either in massive waves throughout the state, or selectively in individual regions. For example, telegram No. 3348 to the Southern Front during Mamontov’s raid brought to the attention of divisions and regiments:
“The Revolutionary Military Council of the Southern Front orders, in a change to previous resolutions regarding the general policy of the Don region, to be guided by the following: to most mercilessly suppress the attempted rebellion in the rear, using in this suppression measures of mass destruction of the rebels.”
In the summer of 1920, during Wrangel’s offensive, Trotsky declared “red terror” in the Yekaterinoslav province. In previous chapters, numerous telegrams from Lenin with similar instructions were cited. Centralized instructions stipulated the categories of the population subject to extermination in a particular campaign, and sometimes even the type of execution. Thus, in a telegram to Penza dated August 11, 2018, Lenin ordered:
"...Hang (certainly hang, so that the people can see) at least 100 notorious kulaks, rich people, bloodsuckers... Find tougher people."
Another feature is the reinforcement of terror by class theory. The “bourgeois” or “kulak” was declared a subhuman, in all respects he acted as a kind of inferior being, “untouchable.” Therefore, from the point of view of communist morality, his destruction, in general, was not murder. Just like later, in Nazi Germany - the destruction of “racially inferior” peoples. Only in Russia it was not about the people, but about their class-inferior part. Therefore, from a “class” point of view, torture was considered completely acceptable. It has already been said that the question of their applicability was openly discussed in the press and was decided positively. The range of them already in civilian life was very diverse - torture with insomnia, light - car headlights in the face, a salty “diet” without water, hunger, cold, beatings, flogging, burning with a cigarette. In addition to “improvised” means, special ones were also used. Several sources, including a report by the Central Committee of the Russian Red Cross, talk about cabinets in which one could only stand upright (an option was to sit crouched) and in which prisoners were locked for long periods of time, sometimes cramming several people into a “single” cabinet. Savinkov and Solzhenitsyn, citing witnesses, mention a “cork chamber,” hermetically sealed and heated, where the prisoner suffered from lack of air and blood came out of the pores of the body. Taking into account the cultural composition of the victims, torture of another kind was also used, moral: placing men and women in a common cell with a single bucket, all kinds of mockery, humiliation and mockery. For example, for arrested women from cultural backgrounds, kneeling for many hours was practiced. Option - in the nude. And one of the Kyiv security officers, according to the Red Cross report, on the contrary, drove the “bourgeois women” into tetanus by interrogating them in the presence of naked girls groveling before him - not prostitutes, but the same “bourgeois women” whom he had previously managed to break.
It is no coincidence that N. Teffi recognized the commissar, who terrified the entire district of Unecha, as a quiet and downtrodden dishwasher who had always volunteered to help the cook cut chickens. “No one asked - she went willingly and never let her pass.” The portraits of security officers and prison commandants drawn by eyewitnesses - sadists, cocaine addicts, half-mad alcoholics - are also not accidental. It was precisely these people who were needed by the new government and took positions that corresponded to their inclinations. And for massacres, according to the summary of the 1st Kutepov Corps, they tried to attract the Chinese or Latvians, since ordinary Red Army soldiers, despite being given vodka and permission to profit from the clothes and shoes of the victims, often could not stand it and ran away.
If torture remained at the level of “amateur performance” and experiments carried out differently everywhere, then executions were unified and brought to a single methodology. Already in 1919–1920. they were carried out in the same way in Odessa, Kyiv, and Siberia. The victims were stripped naked, laid face down on the floor and shot in the back of the head. Such uniformity suggests centralized guidelines that take into account the regime of maximum “savings” and “convenience.” One cartridge per person, a guarantee against unwanted incidents at the last moment, again - it writhes less, does not cause inconvenience when falling, it stays the same as you put it in, pull it away and put the next one in. Only in mass cases did the form of murder differ - barges with pierced bottoms, rifle volleys or machine guns. However, even in these situations, the prescribed ritual was observed whenever possible. So, in 1919, before the surrender of Kyiv, when in one fell swoop they threw many prisoners under the volleys of the Chinese (adding to them a party of civilian employees of the Cheka, clerical and intelligence officers, who apparently knew too much), even in the prevailing rush of those under firing squad who were waiting for their turn , do not forget to undress punctually. And during the period of massacres in Crimea, when whole crowds were driven under machine guns every night, the doomed were forced to undress while still in prison, so as not to have to drive vehicles to get their things. And in winter, in the wind and frost, columns of naked men and women were driven to the place of execution.
But, perhaps, this order was not explained by sadism and the desire to mock. It fit perfectly into the initial projects of the new society and was justified by the same iron logic of Lenin’s dystopia, which completely lost all moral and moral “remnants” and left only the principles of naked rationalism to the new state. Therefore, the system that destroys unnecessary people was obliged to scrupulously preserve everything that could be useful, not disdaining dirty linen. It’s just that they didn’t cut hair onto mattresses, like Nazi followers, but in conditions of raging typhus it would have been unsafe. And the clothes and shoes of those executed (with the exception of those stolen by the direct perpetrators) were carefully accounted for and entered into the “asset” of the Cheka. By some accident or oversight, a curious document ended up in Lenin’s PSS, vol. 51, p. 19:
“An invoice to Vladimir Ilyich from the economic department of the IBSC for the goods sold and released to you...”
In it, signed by the head. The economic department of the Moscow Cheka lists the following items: boots - 1 pair, suit, suspenders, belt.
“Only for 1 thousand 417 rubles 75 kopecks.”
One inevitably wonders who owned the Lenin suits, coats and caps later exhibited in museums? We had time to cool down after previous owner when the leader pulled them on himself?
When, after the “red” terror, you turn to the “white” terror and begin to examine materials, the question inevitably arises - did it exist at all? If we define “terror” by its Bolshevik appearance, as a centralized, mass phenomenon, part of the general policy and state system, then the answer will definitely be negative.
No, the White Guards were not “angels” at all. The civil war is a terrible, cruel war. There were reprisals against the enemy and violence. But when you touch on specific facts, it turns out that such cases are completely incomparable with the “Red Terror”, neither quantitatively nor qualitatively. I’ll make a reservation right away - everything said applies to the areas of operation of regular white armies, and not to the independent “atamanshchina”, where both sides destroyed each other approximately “as equals”. But the “atamanshchina” did not obey the orders of the supreme white power. On the contrary, atrocities were committed in defiance of these orders.
As for other areas, it can be noted general pattern: The overwhelming share of atrocities occurred in the “partisan” phase of the White Movement. For example, the beginning of the Kornilov campaign, when no prisoners were taken - and what could they do with if the Volunteer Army had neither a rear nor a shelter. But already during the retreat from Ekaterinodar in April 18, the situation began to change - even many prominent Bolsheviks were released on the condition that with their influence they would protect the non-transportable wounded left in the villages from reprisals. Of course, cases of extrajudicial executions were repeated later. But they were strictly prohibited by the command and were in the nature of spontaneous excesses. And they usually only treated commissars, security officers, communists and Soviet workers. Often “internationalists”, i.e. Germans, Hungarians, and Chinese, were not taken prisoner. Former officers who found themselves serving in the Red Army were not favored either - they were treated as traitors. And regarding the bulk of prisoners, they became one of the main sources of replenishment of the white armies: the peasant will come or will not come after mobilization, and the prisoner will not go anywhere, especially if he was forcibly mobilized by the Reds. For comparison, on the red side, cases of massacres of prisoners were observed both in the 19th and in the 20th.
The main outbreaks of repression against the Reds and their sympathizers, known in fact, occurred during the anti-Bolshevik uprisings in the Kuban, Don, Ural, Volga region, taking on a particularly fierce character where social discord was complemented by ethnic discord (Cossacks against non-residents, Kyrgyz against peasants, etc. .). Again, we are dealing with a kind of “partisan” phase. With spontaneous explosions, when the reciprocal hatred of the population, driven by them to rebellion, spilled out on the Bolsheviks. But even during such outbreaks, the degree of red and white reprisals was by no means unambiguous. Remember Serafimovich's "Iron Stream". The Taman army, carving out villages on its way, sparing neither women nor children, in order to raise the fighting anger, is forced to turn off the path and make a detour of 20-30 miles to look at the five hanged Bolsheviks. More rigorous examples can be given. The Veshensky rebels almost immediately after their victory (after the genocide!) decided to cancel the executions. Or, say, in 1947, the trial of Shkuro, Krasnov, Sultan-Girey Klych and other White Guards who collaborated with Germany took place. Their activities during the civil war were also examined. So, in the materials of the trial published in Soviet literature, there is no mention of any massacres against the civilian population - even in 1918, when Shkuro led the rebels. Everywhere we talk only about “commanders and commissars,” and the victims are listed by name. The same applies to Sultan-Girey Klych, who commanded the Wild Division. But these were the acts of the most “brutal” white units that were being investigated!..
Around the same time, in the summer of 18th, A. Stetsenko, Furmanov’s wife, went to Yekaterinodar and arrived at the moment of its capture by the Whites. And she fell into the clutches of Denikin’s counterintelligence. The whole city knew that she was a communist, the daughter of a prominent Ekaterinodar Bolshevik who was shot by the Rada. And she arrived from the Soviet of Deputies... After making sure that she was not a spy, but simply came to visit her relatives, no crime was found and she was released. During the uprisings on the Volga and Siberia, prominent communists who managed to avoid the spontaneous wave of popular anger, as a rule, remained alive. Mention has already been made of the Red leaders in Samara, who were gradually exchanged or escaped from prison. The leader of the Vladivostok communists P. Nikiforov quietly sat in prison from June 1918 to January 1920 - both under the government of Derber, and under the Ufa Directory, and under Kolchak, and without much difficulty he led the local party organization from there. In 1919–1920 The Bolshevik Krasnoshchekoye, the future chairman of the government of the Far Eastern Republic, was also in Kolchak’s prison. And Mamontov’s Cossacks from the raid, hundreds of kilometers away, took with them the captured commissars and security officers for trial in Kharkov - and many of them later also remained alive.
On the Soviet side, terror was introduced centrally - up to direct instructions from the government on the scale and methods of repression. Among the whites, it manifested itself in the form of spontaneous excesses, which were suppressed and curbed in every possible way by the authorities as this “element” was organized. If in open Soviet literature, in Lenin’s PSS, many documents have been preserved demanding merciless and wholesale reprisals, then you will not find excerpts from such orders and instructions for the white armies anywhere - despite the fact that many archives, headquarters and government ones, fell into the hands of the Reds enemy documents in “liberated” cities. There are simply no such orders. And Soviet historical literature is forced to make its statements about the “White Terror” either unfounded or relying on “terrible” documents, such as the telegram of the Stavropol governor dated 08/13/19, which demanded such punitive measures to fight the rebels as compiling lists of partisan families and evicting them outside the province (impressive atrocity compared to Lenin’s directives!). The order of the general is often cited as an example. Rozanov, who, with reference to Japanese methods, proposed “strict and cruel” measures to suppress the Yenisei uprising. They just keep silent about the fact that Rozanov was fired by Kolchak for this. And Wrangel, declaring Crimea a besieged fortress, threatened to mercilessly... expel opponents of the government behind the front line.
The main difference between the “red” and “white” terrors stems from the very essence of the struggle between the parties. Some imposed a hitherto unfamiliar regime of totalitarianism (and, according to the original plans, perhaps super-totalitarianism), others fought to restore law and order. Was the concept of “terror” compatible with law and order? Laws are the first thing that white commanders and governments tried to restore, having found liberated territory under their feet. For example, in the South, the pre-February wartime laws of the Russian Empire were in effect. In the north - the most lenient legislation of the Provisional Government. Even in the Yaroslavl uprising, one of the first orders of Colonel Perkhurov restored pre-October laws, legal proceedings and prosecutorial supervision.
Yes, the white authorities executed their enemies. But the executions were again personal, not general. By court verdict. And the death sentence, in accordance with the law, was subject to approval by a person no lower than the commander of the army. I wonder if the Soviet army commanders would have time left for direct duties if they were given all the verdicts in the areas occupied by their troops for approval? By the way, the same order existed with Petliura. If you don’t believe me, open Ostrovsky’s “How the Steel Was Tempered,” where the Petliuraites are discussing whether to impute several years to the arrested person, since the “chief ataman” will not approve the sentence of the minor.
The descriptions of white counterintelligence - with torture, dungeons and executions - usually look groundless. It was as if they were copied from the Cheka. Counterintelligence had many of the shortcomings mentioned earlier, but it did not have the right to execute or pardon. Its functions were limited to arrest and preliminary inquiry, after which the materials were transferred to the judicial investigative authorities. How would she carry out torture and torment without even having her own prisons? Those arrested were kept in citywide prisons or guardhouses. And how, after torture, would she present those arrested to the court, where, unlike amateur counterintelligence officers, there were professional lawyers who would immediately make a fuss about an obvious violation of the law? And besides, they didn’t like counterintelligence officers. Finally, when the whites abandoned the cities, the Soviet side for some reason did not document any “creepy dungeons”, unlike the whites, who repeatedly did this when the Bolsheviks abandoned the cities. However, everything is relative. In Yekaterinoslav, for example, the public and the legal profession expressed violent protest against the excesses of counterintelligence. They expressed that she kept the arrested for 2-3 days without interrogation or bringing charges. From the point of view of legality, such actions, of course, were outrages.
As for the courts that decided the fate of the accused communists, their approach, although strict, was far from unambiguous. Guilt was determined personally. So, in the spring of 19, several dozen people were caught red-handed in Dagestan, the entire underground revolutionary committee and the Bolshevik committee, at the last meeting, on the eve of the impending uprising. Five of them were executed. On April 22, 2020, in Simferopol, the entire meeting of the city party and Komsomol committees, also several dozen people, was arrested. Nine were sentenced to death. 4.06.20. in Yalta they took 14 underground workers. Six were shot.
In general, the literature on “white terror” is extensive. But usually he gets off with general phrases. About how the advancing Reds liberated prisons full of workers. Forgetting to clarify, these “workers” ended up in prison for their beliefs or for theft and banditry. Well, as soon as it came to specific facts, the accusations began to limp. Thus, the solid work of Yu. Polyakov, A. Shishkin and others, “The Anti-Soviet Intervention of 1917–1922 and Its Collapse,” gives as many as ... two examples of reprisals by landowner officers against peasants who plundered their estates. This is for the entire Kolchak front (let us also take into account the fact that such actions were officially prohibited by Kolchak, as well as by Denikin). A fact from a leaflet of the Ufa Bolshevik Committee about some lieutenant Gankevich, who shot two high school students for working in a Soviet institution, wandered from book to book. It does not say whether this Gankevich was mentally healthy and how the command treated him later. In the same way, the books repeat the example given by Furmanov in “Chapaev” - about drunken Cossacks who chopped up two red cooks who accidentally stopped by their location. Such rewriting of facts from each other seems to speak for itself - and not at all about their widespread nature. (By the way, the same Furmanov quite calmly describes how he himself ordered an officer to be shot just because they found a letter from his fiancée, where she writes how bad life is under the Reds and asks to release them as soon as possible.)
It cannot be denied that there were also atrocities and lawlessness on the part of the whites. But they were carried out contrary to the general policy of the command. And they were not a mass campaign, but isolated cases, so the question remains open - are such facts subject to any generalization? Thus, the “green commander-in-chief” N. Voronovich told in his memoirs how Colonel Petrov’s punitive detachment, suppressing a peasant rebellion, shot 11 people in the village of Tretya Rota. But this execution was the only one. As Voronovich writes:
“What happened then in the village of Third Company, in its horror and monstrous cruelty, surpasses all the massacres committed before and since by volunteers...”
And this reprisal cost the Denikins a powerful uprising in the Sochi district... In Stavropol in 1920, when the front was already collapsing, the Cossacks, brutalized by defeat, vented their rage by killing about 60 people. political prisoners held in prison. The entire local public was outraged, and protests immediately followed at all levels of the city prosecutor Krasnov (who soon became the Minister of Justice in the Denikin government). But this case was also one of a kind. Unlike the Bolsheviks, who destroyed prisoners during the retreat, the Whites could not afford this, realizing that the Reds would take it out on the civilian population. On the contrary, as already mentioned, in a number of cases, for example, in Yekaterinodar, communist prisoners were released in order to prevent the atrocities of the Red Army entering the city.
B. Aleksandrovsky, who worked as a doctor in Gallipoli, in one of the camps of the defeated White Army, wrote:
“The prevailing belief among Wrangel’s officers was that the main mistake, one of the reasons for the defeat, was softness in the fight against Bolshevism.”
Indeed, the extent of the repressions can be judged from documents such as the appeal of the Crimean Regional Committee of the RCP (b) to workers, soldiers and peasants:
"Comrades! The blood of the innocently tortured nine of your representatives calls to you! To vengeance! To arms!"
Innocently tortured nine - Sevastopol underground city party committee, arrested on 02/04/20 during the preparation of the uprising and shot. I wonder what numbers the Whites would have to operate with if they decided to issue similar appeals about the work of the Cheka?
But the most eloquent example of a comparison of red and white repressions is given by a former gene. Danilov, who served at the headquarters of the 4th Soviet Army. In April 1921, the Bolsheviks decided to hold a solemn funeral for the victims of the “White Terror” in Simferopol. But no matter how much they searched, they found only 10 underground fighters, convicted by a military court and hanged. The figure seemed “unrespectable,” and the authorities took the first dead people they found from hospitals, bringing the number of coffins to 52, which were buried magnificently after a solemn procession and meeting. This happened at a time when the Reds themselves had already shot 20 thousand people in Simferopol...
From the book History of Russia from Rurik to Putin. People. Events. Dates author Anisimov Evgeniy Viktorovich“Red Terror” Undoubtedly, by the summer of 1918, “combustible material of resistance” had accumulated in society. The Bolsheviks took it very seriously, as Lenin wrote, “to cleanse the Russian land of all kinds of harmful insects,” which he considered to be the huge masses of their enemies - from
From the book Russia, washed in blood. The worst Russian tragedy author Burovsky Andrey MikhailovichChapter 12 Red Terror Pretexts and reasons In the USSR, it was officially believed that initially the communists were very kind and did not intend to use terror at all. They say that the Red Terror had to be introduced solely in response to the White Terror. The White Terror was expressed in the fact that
From the book Red Terror through the eyes of eyewitnesses author Volkov Sergey VladimirovichRed Terror Three prisoners were transferred from prison to our cell again. All three are very young people. They were accused of allegedly extorting a bribe of 20 thousand rubles from a well-known person in Odessa - during a search of her. These three faces, as well as their
From the book History of Wars and Military Art by Mering Franz From the book Alien Invasion: A Conspiracy Against the Empire author Shambarov Valery Evgenievich45. How the Red Terror grew The civil war left behind ruins, chaos and graves. In the winter of 1919–20, after the collapse of the Kolchak front, the entire space from the Urals to the Pacific Ocean turned into a huge kingdom of death. Bloody anarchy was sweeping across Siberia. Barely
From the book The Black Book of Communism: Crimes. Terror. Repression by Bartoszek Karel3. Red terror The Bolsheviks openly say that their days are numbered, the German ambassador in Moscow Karl Gelfreich reported to his government on August 3, 1918. - Moscow was gripped by real panic... Incredible rumors are circulating around the city about “traitors” who have infiltrated
From the book Red Terror in Russia. 1918-1923 author Melgunov Sergey Petrovich“RED TERROR” “In a country where individual freedom provides the opportunity for honest, ideological struggle... political murder as a means of struggle is a manifestation of despotism.” Exec. Committee Nar. Will I lived through the first five years of Bolshevik rule in Russia, when I
From the book "Red Terror" in Russia 1918 - 1923 author Melgunov Sergey PetrovichRed Terror “In a country where personal freedom makes it possible for honest, ideological struggle... political murder, as a means of struggle, is a manifestation of despotism.” Exec. Committee Nar. Voli. I lived through the first five years of Bolshevik rule in Russia. When I left for
From the book Russian Revolution. Bolsheviks in the struggle for power. 1917-1918 author Pipes Richard EdgarCHAPTER 10. RED TERROR Terror is mainly unnecessary cruelty committed by frightened people for the sake of their own peace of mind. From a letter from Engels to Marx1 Systematic state terror was not invented by the Bolsheviks: they resorted to it long before them
From the book Secret Operations of the Cheka author Golinkov David LvovichRed Terror On January 1, 1918, at about 19:30, the car in which V.I. Lenin, M.I. Ulyanova and the secretary of the Swiss Social Democratic Party F. Platten were returning from a meeting in the Mikhailovsky Manege was fired at on the Simeonovsky Bridge ( now the Belinsky Bridge)
author Simbirtsev IgorChapter 5 Was the “Red Terror” a response to the “White”? History and traditions are being destroyed, the struggle is becoming fiercer to the point of bestial anger. Soviet People's Commissar A.V.
From the book of the Cheka in Lenin's Russia. 1917–1922: At the dawn of the revolution author Simbirtsev IgorWhat was the “White Terror” It is often the cruelty of the White counterintelligence that the Bolsheviks and their defenders justify their “Red Terror”. Although during the Civil War itself, and even in the 20s and 30s of the first decades of Soviet power, the ideologists of Bolshevism did not even defend such
From the book All Against All: The Unknown Civil War in the Southern Urals author Suvorov Dmitry VladimirovichRed terror in the Urals Now discussions about red terror have even become somewhat common place: they refer to it in all cases - just as before everyone blamed it on white terror. We still have a long way to go before we understand what the Red Terror is as a phenomenon in the history of the 20th century.
From the book The Emperor Who Knew His Fate. And Russia, which did not know... author Romanov Boris SemenovichRed Terror The wave of revolutionary terror in Russia of the 20th century is usually counted from the murder in 1901 of the Minister of Public Education Nikolai Pavlovich Bogolepov (he was killed by a student expelled from Moscow University, the Socialist Revolutionary P. Karpovich). Total victims from 1901 to 1911
From the book The Black Book of Communism by Bartoszek Karel3. Red Terror On August 3, 1918, the German ambassador in Moscow Karl Gelfreich reported to his government: “The Bolsheviks openly say that their days are numbered. Moscow was gripped by real panic... Incredible rumors are circulating around the city about “traitors” who have infiltrated
From the book Provincial “counter-revolution” [White movement and civil war in the Russian North] author Novikova Lyudmila GennadievnaLocal government and white terror White terror traditionally occupied a special place in red propaganda and later Soviet historiography, which believed that it was the widespread use of violence that allowed whites to keep power in their hands. It was argued that only through
The main armed struggle for power during the Civil War was waged between the Bolshevik Red Army and the armed forces of the White movement, which was reflected in the stable naming of the main parties to the conflict “Red” and “White”. Both sides, for the period until their complete victory and pacification of the country, intended to exercise political power through dictatorship. Further goals were proclaimed as follows: on the part of the Reds - the construction of a classless communist society, both in Russia and in Europe, through active support of the “world revolution”; on the part of the Whites - the convening of a new Constituent Assembly, with the transfer to its discretion of deciding the issue of the political structure of Russia.
A characteristic feature of the Civil War was the willingness of all its participants to widely use violence to achieve their political goals.
An integral part of the civil war was the armed struggle of the national “outskirts” of the former Russian Empire for their independence and the insurrectionary movement of broad sections of the population against the troops of the main warring parties - the “Reds” and the “Whites”. Attempts to declare independence by the “outskirts” provoked resistance both from the “whites,” who fought for a “united and indivisible Russia,” and from the “reds,” who saw the growth of nationalism as a threat to the gains of the revolution.
The civil war unfolded under conditions of foreign military intervention and was accompanied by combat operations on Russian territory by both troops of the Quadruple Alliance countries and troops of the Entente countries.
The civil war was fought not only on the territory of the former Russian Empire, but also on the territory of neighboring states - Iran (Anzel operation), Mongolia and China.
Among the most important causes of the Civil War in modern historiography, it is customary to highlight the social, political and national-ethnic contradictions that persisted in Russia even after the February Revolution. First of all, by October 1917, such pressing issues as ending the war and the agrarian question remained unresolved.
The proletarian revolution was considered by the Bolshevik leaders as a “rupture of civil peace” and in this sense was equated with a civil war. The readiness of the Bolshevik leaders to initiate a civil war is confirmed by Lenin’s thesis of 1914, later formalized in an article for the Social Democratic press: “Let’s turn the imperialist war into a civil war!” In 1917, this thesis underwent dramatic changes and, as noted by Doctor of Historical Sciences B.I. Kolonitsky, Lenin removed the slogan about civil war, however, as the historian writes, culturally and psychologically the Bolsheviks, even after removing this thesis, were ready to start a civil war for the sake of transforming world war into world revolution. The desire of the Bolsheviks to retain power by any means, primarily violent, to establish the dictatorship of the party and build a new society based on their theoretical principles made a civil war inevitable.
An integral part of the civil war was the armed struggle of the national “outskirts” of the former Russian Empire for their independence and the insurrectionary movement of broad sections of the population against the troops of the main warring parties - the “Reds” and the “Whites”.
"Red" and "white" terror.
The very concept of “red terror” was first introduced by the Socialist-Revolutionary Zinaida Konoplyannikova, who stated at the trial in 1906:
“The party decided to respond to the white, but bloody terror of the government with red terror...”
In turn, the term “red terror” was then formulated by L. D. Trotsky as “a weapon used against a class doomed to death that does not want to die.”
Of the millions killed in Russia by the Communists, many millions died with faith, prayer and repentance on their lips and in their hearts. Many of them were killed for political unreliability towards the Soviet communist regime. Reliability for the power of atheists, enemies of the faith and truth of Christ, is betrayal of God, the Church of Christ and the moral law. Martyrs and innocent victims are all those who suffered and were killed solely for their origin or for belonging to a certain social class. These never imagined that being a military man, bearing a high title, being a nobleman, merchant, landowner, manufacturer, Cossack, or just being born into these families is already a crime worthy of death in the eyes of the security officers.
Drunken crowds of sailors and “mobs”, inspired by “freedom” (for no reason, found fault and, as a rule, killed generals, officers, cadets and cadets. Even if there were no shoulder straps and cockades, this “beauty of the revolution” defined “officers” by to an intelligent person. Some officers at that time did not shave on purpose, they wore rags to look like their “comrades.” The education of the officers did not allow them to watch indifferently as gangs of these “comrades” robbed stores and raped women in accordance with Lenin’s call for “expropriation of expropriators and their socialization.” women." Many officers paid with their lives just because they dared to stand up for women in front of a besotted crowd of "comrades."
After the October coup, the extermination of officers took place in an organized manner, with the help of special “Extraordinary Commissions” composed of notorious executioners of all nationalities: Latvians, Chinese, Jews, Hungarians, Russians, under the leadership of the Chief Executioner Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky. For organizing the Red Terror, for the murder of millions of Russians, some no longer respected politicians are trying to restore the monument to the Chief Terrorist Dzerzhinsky.
..." A typical impression of an officer: "It is impossible to describe in human words what was going on around us in our 76th Infantry Division, in the one neighboring ours and in general, according to rumors, in the entire Active Army!... Until quite recently, our Christ-loving Army, almost uncontrollable attacks with bayonets achieved incredible victories over the enemy, and now... unbridled, disheveled, always half-drunk, armed to the teeth gangs, deliberately incited by some numerous “comrades” with characteristic noses to kill all officers, to violence and reprisals "
The concept of “White terror” became part of the political terminology of the period of revolution and the Civil War and is traditionally used in modern historiography, although the term itself is conditional and collective, since the anti-Bolshevik forces included not only representatives of the White movement, but also other very heterogeneous forces. A number of historians believed that, unlike the “Red Terror” proclaimed by the Bolsheviks as a means of establishing their political dominance, the term “White Terror” itself had neither legislative nor propaganda approval in the White movement during the Civil War. The white armies were not alien to the cruelty inherent in war, but the “black pages” of the white armies differed fundamentally from the terrorist policies of the Bolsheviks:
Whites never and nowhere created organizations similar to the Soviet Extraordinary Commissions and revolutionary tribunals;
the leaders of the White movement never called for mass terror, for executions on social grounds, for the taking and execution of hostages if the enemies did not fulfill certain demands;
Participants in the White movement did not see any need for mass terror - neither ideological nor practical. This was explained by the fact that the purpose of the Whites’ military actions was not a war against the people or any specific social classes, but a war against a small party that had seized power in Russia and used the socio-economic and political situation, as well as market conditions, to its advantage to achieve the goal. changes in the mood of the lower classes of Russian society.
The exact number of victims of the “White Terror” has not been established, but the policy of “White Terror” caused such discontent among the population that, along with other factors, it served as one of the reasons for the defeat of the White Movement in the Civil War.
According to V.V. Erlikhman, about 300 thousand people died from the “white terror”. This number includes both victims of extrajudicial killings of the white troops and governments themselves (approximately 111 thousand people), as well as victims of foreign occupiers and interventionists and victims of national border regimes that arose as a result of the collapse of the Russian Empire.
The civil war was generated by a complex set of social contradictions, economic, political, psychological and other reasons and became the greatest disaster for Russia.
The deep, systemic crisis of the Russian Empire ended with its collapse and the victory of the Bolsheviks, who, with the support of the masses, defeated their opponents in the civil war and were given the opportunity to put into practice their ideas about socialism and communism.
Historical experience teaches that it is easier to prevent a civil war than to stop it, which the Russian political elite must constantly remember.
The victory of the Bolsheviks in the Civil War was determined by a number of factors, in many ways similar to those that ensured their victory in the October Revolution: the political unity of the Bolsheviks, led by a super-centralized party, and in the hands of which was a huge state apparatus, while in the White movement there were internal antagonisms, inconsistency of actions, contradictions with national regions and Entente troops; the ability of the Bolsheviks to mobilize the masses.
In contrast, the White movement, which was largely heterogeneous, failed to unite the bulk of the population under its slogans; the Bolsheviks, under whose rule the central regions of the country were, had powerful economic potential (human resources, heavy industry, etc.); superiority of the Red Army over the White Army in numbers; the defeat of the parties that advocated the second path of development was explained by the weakness of the social forces behind them and the weak support of workers and peasants.